Do You Need a Slovenian-Language Website to Sell in Slovenia?
Foreign companies entering Slovenia often ask the same question: is an English website enough? Most Slovenians under fifty speak good English, and the market is small. Translating everything into a language spoken by about two million people can look like an expense that will never pay back.
Short answer: if you sell to consumers in Slovenia, you should plan for Slovenian. Slovenian law requires businesses to deal with consumers in Slovenian, and advertising and product information must be in Slovenian or in a language consumers in Slovenia understand. Beyond the legal side, Slovenians search, compare and ask AI assistants in Slovenian, so an English-only site is largely invisible to them.
What Slovenian law says
Two laws matter most for companies selling online to Slovenian consumers.
The Consumer Protection Act (ZVPot-1)
Article 7 of the Consumer Protection Act states that companies do business with consumers in Slovenian. In areas with the Italian and Hungarian national communities, their languages are also used. Information needed for goods, services and digital content must be in a language consumers in Slovenia understand, and generally understood symbols and pictures may replace text.
The Public Use of Slovenian Act (ZJRS)
The language act covers advertising, service presentations and other public notices. These must be in Slovenian or in a language understood by consumers in Slovenia. When Slovenian is used together with another language, the Slovenian text may not be less prominent. The government business portal SPOT also points out that Slovenian should be used preferentially in online advertising and that warranty documents must be in Slovenian.
In practice this means that checkout, terms and conditions, product information, warranty documents and customer support for Slovenian consumers should be available in Slovenian. B2B sales are less strictly regulated, but most Slovenian buyers still expect at least the key pages in their language.
This article is general information, not legal advice. For your specific case, consult a Slovenian lawyer.
Why Slovenian matters for marketing, not just compliance
- Search happens in Slovenian. People search for »servis klime Ljubljana«, not »air conditioning service Ljubljana«. An English page rarely ranks for these searches. More on this in SEO in Slovenia.
- Ads need a matching landing page. A Slovenian ad that leads to an English page loses trust and lowers the Google Ads quality score. See Google Ads in Slovenia.
- AI assistants answer in Slovenian. When someone asks ChatGPT or Gemini in Slovenian for a recommendation, the assistant leans on Slovenian sources: your site, reviews, directories and media mentions.
- Trust. A Slovenian site with a local address, phone number and clear delivery and return terms converts better than a translated afterthought.
Machine translation is not enough
Slovenian is a difficult language for machine translation. It has six grammatical cases, three numbers (singular, dual and plural) and gendered verb forms. Automatic translation produces text that is understandable but reads as foreign. Slovenians notice that immediately, and it costs trust, especially in categories such as finance, health and expensive products.
A practical approach is to use machine translation as a first draft, then have the key pages edited by a native speaker who understands marketing: the home page, category and service pages, product templates, checkout, terms and email notifications.
What to translate first
- checkout, cart, account and order emails,
- terms and conditions, privacy policy, returns and warranty information,
- product or service pages that you want to rank and advertise,
- contact page with local contact details,
- your Google Business Profile and key directory listings.
Blog articles and long guides can follow later. Start with the pages that sell and the pages that the law requires.
Technical setup
- use a separate language version, such as
/sl/or a.sidomain, not automatic browser translation, - set hreflang tags so Google shows the right version to the right user,
- translate URLs, titles and meta descriptions, not just body text,
- make sure prices are shown in euros with VAT included for consumers.
We build and adapt websites for the Slovenian market, including translation editing and local SEO. See website development or get in touch to discuss your launch.
Frequently asked questions
For consumer sales, usually not. Slovenian consumer law requires businesses to deal with consumers in Slovenian, and most searches in Slovenia are made in Slovenian, so an English-only site is rarely found.
Advertising must be in Slovenian or in a language consumers in Slovenia understand, and Slovenian should be used preferentially in online advertising. If you use two languages, the Slovenian text may not be less prominent.
As a first draft, yes. Key pages such as product pages, checkout, terms and email notifications should be edited by a native speaker, because Slovenian grammar makes automatic translations sound unnatural.
The consumer protection rules apply to sales to consumers. B2B sales are less strictly regulated, but Slovenian business buyers still expect key information in Slovenian.
